28-03-2024 09:30 PM Jerusalem Timing

Telegraph: ISIL Cannot Be Beaten without Boots on Ground

Telegraph: ISIL Cannot Be Beaten without Boots on Ground

The so-called ’Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist organization cannot be defeated without using ground forces.

Iraq: US troopsThe so-called 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant' (ISIL) terrorist organization cannot be defeated without using ground forces, Con Coughlin wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Coughlin noted that anyone who understands what confirmed by Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces, Gen. Martin Dempsey, will realize that defeating ISIL altogether requires some form of Western ground forces.

"The problem this time round is that, if the American and British governments remain true to their mantra of having “no boots on the ground”, our ability to influence the conflict’s outcome becomes extremely limited, as we saw in the Libyan conflict," he said.

"The Peshmergas may be good fighters, but they are more interested in risking their lives to defend Kurdish interests than those of the US and Britain," Coughlin added.

The report stated that destroying the organization will be closer to the way the West dealt with regarding the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, where Western forces worked in cooperation with its allies.

Coughlin also believed that this should be a template to deal with the ISIL, i.e. other American  and western ground forces would offer practical assistance to Iraqi groups such as the Kurdish peshmerga fighters, and to get certain of the removal of ISIL threat as well.